Tag: cafes in toronto

D-Beatstro is a community space, art gallery, cafe, event venue, and restaurant that opened a little over a year ago in the old Bike Pirates space. It’s has a relaxed friendly atmosphere, and a nice addition to Bloordale, and right across the street from the magical Through Being Cool Vegan Bakery. They have prioritized being both physically and financially accessible, especially for people throwing events. Which speaking as someone that likes to organize the occasional event – physically accessible event venues are something that are sorely lacking in our city. I’ve watched D-Beatstro improve and grow their offerings and options over the last few months and it’s been great to see them grow into having a really solid menu, kitchen, and coffee set up. As with any business, the beginning can be tough, and when you hit the ground running like these folks did and make improvements on the fly in that DIY style (and if not, you will likely fail) it can be stressful and not without hiccups. This community space, cafe, restaurant, and more, has managed to do that, and excel at it. I mention this especially if you visited them in the absolute beginning, and didn’t go back – simply to encourage you to visit again. That said, from the very beginning, they started out with great coffee (it’s from Dark City if you’re curious) – they knew what they were doing with that fancy espresso machine, and it was great to be able to go in there with my…

We went into BIVY on Sunday this weekend. It’s one of the cafes on this session of the Indie Coffee passport. It’s another one of those spots that has only been open for less than three years. They opened in mid-July 2012 in the Brockton Triangle/Brockton Village area. They do food, coffee, and weekend brunch. It felt like more of a restaurant than coffee shop (or as they say an “Urban Food Outpost“), but they didn’t seem to mind us only ordering coffee. Service was super friendly, the latte was totally my style (but JC didn’t dig it as much as I did.) There are a bunch of options for their Indie Coffee Passport offerings, but we went with the usual – soy latte. BIVY appears to have their own Bivy Collective espresso blend, which I really liked. The latte had a nice thick foam, and the coffee had a rich full flavour. They also sell a variety of products in the back corner, like my favourite chocosol chocolate, stasis preserves, Social coffee & tea bags, cup cozies, and a bunch of other things that I no longer remember. Overall, I really liked the space, it was warm, inviting, and as an added bonus they have wifi (that they even invited us to use.) Vegan menu options seem fairly limited – to potentially nonexistent (unless you count salad,) though you might want to ask about the soup (according to the website the soups are always dairy-free). In case you’re curious, the…

Since 2010, the Indie Coffee Passport has been helping me explore Toronto and all the independent cafe’s within it. I’ve found places I keep visiting, I’ve found places I never wanted to go again, but the important thing was that I got to check them out, and see parts of the city that I might not have ever ventured out to otherwise. The Indie Coffee Passport in Toronto is doing something different this year, and I think it’s a great change. This round started on October 1st, and is going on until April 2014, and they’re highlighting coffee shops in the city that have only been open for 3 years or less. I have fond memories of doing the Indie Coffee Passport by myself in the first few months of living in Toronto by myself, with new pals, and then later with JC in the early days of our dating life. It’s a lovely opportunity to explore the city, check out new places and neighbourhoods you may never have visited before, while also enjoying a delicious cup of coffee or tea. (Also, by the way, the Indie Coffee Passport makes a great gift!) Here are the participating coffee shops arranged by soy tax, or no soy tax. I’m going to define soytax as an extra fee for any dairy milk alternative. I’m not sure yet what kind of non-dairy milks these locations have, but I will designate the ones where you’ll have to pay extra for your non-dairy latte/fancy coffee/tea –…